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Organisation de l'armée secrète
| native_name_lang = | other_name = | logo = Oas logo public.svg | caption = Banner of the movement | dates = – | leader = Raoul Salan, Edmond Jouhaud, Yves Godard, Jean-Jacques Susini, Jean-Claude Perez | motives = Against Algerian independence from France | area = French Algeria | ideology = French Colonialism, French nationalism |position=Far-right | crimes = | attacks = Battle of Bab El Oued | status = Inactive | size = 3,000 members | revenue = | financing = | url = }} The Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS — or Organisation armée secrète, lit. "Organisation of the Secret Army" or "Secret Armed Organisation") was a short-lived right-wing French dissident paramilitary organization during the Algerian War (1954–62). The OAS carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence from French colonial rule.Algérie: Géographie, économie, histoire et politique (Les Grands Articles d'Universalis): Universalis, Encyclopaedia (2015-10-28). (French Edition) (Kindle Locations 1157-1158). Encyclopaedia Universalis. Kindle Edition. Quote: "La dernière année de l’Algérie française est marquée, des deux côtés de la Méditerranée, par la folie meurtrière de l’O.A.S. dirigée par Salan. Plasticages en série, exécutions de personnalités jugées trop « libérales » et d’Algériens musulmans..." Translation: "The last year of the French Algeria is marked, on both sides of the Mediterranean, by the murderous folly of the OAS led by Salan. Serial bombings, executions of personalities judged too 'liberal' and of Algerian Muslims..." Its motto was ("Algeria is French and will remain so"). The OAS was formed out of existing networks, calling themselves "counter-terrorists", "self-defence groups", or "resistance", which had carried out attacks on the FLN (Algerian National Liberation Front) and their perceived supporters since early in the war. It was officially formed in Francoist Spain, in Madrid in January 1961, as a response by some French politicians and French military officers to the 8 January 1961 referendum on self-determination concerning Algeria, which had been organized by General de Gaulle. By acts of bombings and targeted assassinations in both metropolitan France and French Algerian territories, which are estimated to have resulted in 2,000 deaths between April 1961 and April 1962, the OAS attempted to prevent Algerian independence. This campaign culminated in a wave of attacks that followed the March 1962 Evian agreements, which granted independence to Algeria and marked the beginning of the exodus of the pieds-noirs, and in Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry's 1962 assassination attempt against president de Gaulle in the Paris suburb of Le Petit-Clamart. Another prominent target was the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who supported the FLN. The OAS still has admirers in French nationalist movements. In July 2006, some OAS sympathisers attempted to relight the flame of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to commemorate the Oran massacre on 5 July 1962.[http://www.lematindz.net/index.php?news=126&ric=405 Les nostalgiques de l'Algérie française ont la dent dure], in Le MatinDZ, 13 October 2007 History The OAS was created in response to the January 1961 referendum on self-determination for Algeria. It was founded in Spain, on January 1961, by former officers, Pierre Lagaillarde (who led the 1960 Siege of Algiers), General Raoul Salan (who took part in the 1961 Algiers putsch or "Generals' Uprising") and Jean-Jacques Susini, along with other members of the French Army, including Yves Guérin-Sérac, and former members of the French Foreign Legion from the First Indochina War (1946–54). OAS-Métro, the branch in metropolitan France, was led by captain Pierre Sergent. These officers united earlier anti-FLN networks such as the Organisation de Résistance de L'Algérie Française. There was resistance against Algerian independence in January 1960 by the settlers and by Algerian Jews, who again took up arms in April 1961, during the Generals' Uprising, with some of the Algerian Jews siding with the OAS after synagogues were attacked by the National Liberation Front (Front de libération nationale, FLN) in Algeria. Daniele Ganser of the ETH Parallel History Project claims that Gladio stay-behind networks, directed by NATO, were involved, but no definitive proof has been found.Chronology from The Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact, ETH Zurich Institute.Daniele Ganser, Operation Gladio. Terrorism in Western Europe, Franck Cass, London, 2005. Both of these insurrections were swiftly suppressed and many of the leaders who had created the OAS were imprisoned. By acts of sabotage and assassination in both metropolitan France and French Algerian territories, the OAS attempted to prevent Algerian independence. The first victim was Pierre Popie, attorney and president of the People's Republican Movement (Mouvement Républicain Populaire, MRP), who stated on TV, "French Algeria is dead" (L’Algérie française est morte). Roger Gavoury, head of the French police in Algiers, was assassinated at the direction of Roger Degueldre, leader of the OAS Delta Commando, with the actual killing done by Claude Piegts and Albert Dovecar on 31 May 1961 (Piegts and Dovecar were executed by a firing-squad on 7 June 1962. Degueldre on 6 July). The OAS became notorious for stroungas, attacks using plastic explosives (stroungas comes from the Italian stroncare, to rip down; many pied-noirs were of southern Italian descent which influenced local French). In October 1961 Pierre Lagaillarde, who had escaped to Francoist Spain following the 1960 barricades week, was arrested in Madrid, along with the Italian activist Guido Giannettini.René Monzat, Enquêtes sur la droite extrême, Le Monde-éditions, 1992, p.91. Monzat quotes François Duprat, L’Ascension du MSI, Edition les Sept Couleurs, Paris, 1972 Franco then exiled him to the Canary Islands. The Delta commandos engaged in indiscriminate killing sprees, on 17 March 1962; against cleaning-ladies on 5 May; on 15 March 1962 against six inspectors of the National Education Ministry, who directed the "Educative Social Centres" (Centres sociaux éducatifs), including Mouloud Feraoun, an Algerian writer, etc.[http://www.ldh-toulon.net/spip.php?article609#nh1 26 mars 1962, la fusillade de la rue d’Isly à Alger], Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH, Human Rights League), article based on sources from Benjamin Stora, Histoire de la guerre d'Algérie, La gangrène et l'oubli and Sylvie Thénault, Histoire de la guerre d'indépendance algérienne It is estimated that the assassinations carried out by the OAS between April 1961 and April 1962 left 2,000 people dead and twice as many wounded.Universalis, Encyclopaedia; Grands Articles, Les (2015-10-28). Algérie (Les Grands Articles d'Universalis): Géographie, économie, histoire et politique (French Edition) (Kindle Locations 1158-1159). Encyclopaedia Universalis. Kindle Edition. Quote: "En un an, d’avril 1961 à avril 1962, les attentats de l’O.A.S. font 2 000 morts et le double de blessés." The OAS attempted several times to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle. The most prominent attempt was a 22 August 1962 ambush at Petit-Clamart, a Paris suburb, planned by a military engineer who was not an OAS member, Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry. Bastien-Thiry was executed in March 1963 after de Gaulle refused to grant him amnesty. A fictionalised version of this attack was recreated in the 1971 book by Frederick Forsyth, The Day of the Jackal, and in the 1973 film of the same name. The OAS use of extreme violence created strong opposition from some pieds-noirs and in mainland France. As a result, the OAS eventually found itself in violent clandestine conflict with not only the FLN but also French secret services and with a Gaullist paramilitary, the Mouvement pour la Communauté (the MPC). Originally a political movement in Algiers, the MPC eventually became a paramilitary force in response to OAS violence. The group obtained valuable information which was routinely passed on to the French secret services, but was eventually destroyed by OAS assassinations . March 1962 Evian agreements and the struggle of the OAS The main hope of the OAS was to prove that the FLN was secretly restarting military action after a ceasefire was agreed in the Evian agreements of 19 March 1962 and the referendum of June 1962; So, during these three months, the OAS unleashed a new terrorist campaign to force the FLN to abandon the ceasefire. Over 100 bombs a day were detonated by the OAS in March in pursuit of this goal. OAS operatives set off an average of 120 bombs per day in March, with targets including hospitals and schools. Dozens of Arab residents were killed at Place du Gouvernement when 24 mortar rounds were fired from the European stronghold of Bab el-Oued.Harrison, Alexander (1989). Challenging De Gaulle: The OAS and the counterrevolution in Algeria (1954-1962). Greenwood press, p. 118. ISBN 0-275-92791-1 On 21 March, the OAS issued a flyer where they proclaimed that the French military had become an "occupation force." It organized car bombings: 25 killed in Oran on 28 February 1962 and 62 killed in Algiers on 2 May, among others. On 22 March, they took control of Bab el-Oued and attacked French soldiers, killing six of them. The French military then surrounded them and stormed the neighbourhood. The battle killed 35 and injured 150. On 26 March, the leaders of the OAS proclaimed a general strike in Algiers and called for the European settlers to come to Bab el-Oued in order to break the blockade by military forces loyal to de Gaulle and the Republic. A detachment of tirailleurs (Muslim troops in the French Army) fired on the demonstrators, killing 54, injuring 140, and traumatising the settlers' population in what is known as the "gunfight of the Rue d'Isly". In coincidence with the uprising of Bab-el Oued, 200 OAS maquis marched from Algiers to Ouarsenis, a mountainous region between Oran and Algiers. They tried to overrun two French military outposts and gain support for local Muslim tribes loyal to France, but instead they were harassed and eventually defeated by Legion units led by Colonel Albert Brothier after several days of fighting.Harrison (1989), p. 120 Some clashes between the French army and the OAS involving grenades and mortar fire took place at Oran as late as 10 April.Diamond, Robert (1970). France under De Gaulle. Facts on File, p. 50. ISBN 0871961792 At least one Lieutenant and one Sub-Lieutenant were killed by the OAS during the fighting.Fleury, G. (2002) Histoire secréte de L'OAS. Grasset, pp. 1020-1032. In April 1962 the OAS leader, Raoul Salan was captured. Despite the OAS bombing campaign, the FLN remained resolute in its agreement to the ceasefire and on 17 June 1962 the OAS also began a ceasefire. The Algerian authority officially guaranteed the security of the remaining Europeans, but in early July 1962 occurred the Oran Massacre: hundreds of armed people came down to European areas of the city, attacking European civilians. The violence lasted several hours, including lynching and acts of torture in public places in all areas of Oran by civilians supported by the ALN—the armed wing of the FLN, at the time evolving into the Algerian Army— resulting in 3,000 missing people:Cinq Colonnes à La Une, rushes: interview Pied-Noir, ORTF, 1 July 1962, National Audiovisual Institute By 1963, the main OAS operatives were either killed or in jail. Roger Degueldre, Claude Piegts and Albert Dovecar were executed by firing squad on 7 June 1962. Jean Bastien-Thiry, who had attempted the Petit-Clamart assassination on de Gaulle, but was not formally a member of the OAS, was also executed, on 11 March 1963. With the arrest of Gilles Buscia in 1965, the organisation effectively ceased to exist.Duranton-Crabol, Anne-Marie (1995). Le temps de l'OAS. Editions Complexe, p. 232. ISBN 2-87027-542-0. The jailed OAS members were amnestied by De Gaulle under a July 1968 act. Putschist generals still alive in November 1982 were reintegrated into the Army by another amnesty law: Raoul Salan, Edmond Jouhaud, and six other generals benefited from this law. Legacy Many OAS members later took part in various anti-communist struggles around the world. Following the disbandment of the organisation, and the execution of several of its members, the OAS chaplain, Georges Grasset, organised the flight of OAS members, from a route going from Paris to Francoist Spain and finally to Argentina.Marie-Monique Robin, Escadrons de la mort, l'école française, 453 pages. La Découverte (15 September 2004). Collection: Cahiers libres. (ISBN 2707141631) Transl. Los Escuadrones De La Muerte/ the Death Squadron 539 pages. Sudamericana (October 2005). (ISBN 950072684X) (Presentation)Horacio Verbitsky in The Silence, extract transl. in English made available by openDemocracy: Breaking the silence: the Catholic Church in Argentina and the "dirty war", 28 July 2005 Grasset arrived in 1962 in Buenos Aires to take charge of the Argentine branch of the Cité Catholique, an integral Catholic group formed by Jean Ousset, the personal secretary of Charles Maurras, as an offshoot of the monarchist Action Française. This anti-communist religious organisation was formed of many Algerian war veterans and close to the OAS. Charles Lacheroy and Colonel Trinquier, who theorised the systemic use of torture in counter-insurgency doctrine in Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency (1961), were members, along with Colonel Jean Gardes, who had first theorised counter-insurgency tactics during the Indochina War (1947–1954), Jean Ousset developed the concept of "subversion" referring to an essential enemy threatening the existence of Occident itself. Gardes arrived in Argentina in 1963, a year after the end of the Algerian War. There, he delivered counter-insurgency courses at the ESMA, the Navy Mechanics Schools, which became infamous during the "Dirty War" in the 1970s for being used as an internment and torture center. Soon after Gardes met Federico Lucas Roussillon, an Argentine naval lieutenant commander, the cadets at the ESMA were shown the film The Battle of Algiers (1966) by Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo, during which the fictional Lieutenant-Colonel Mathieu and his paratroops make systematic use of torture, block warden system, and death flights (dubbed "Crevettes Bigeard", or "Bigeard's Shrimps"). The Argentine admiral Luis María Mendía testified in January 2007 that a French intelligence agent, Bertrand de Perseval, had participated in the "disappearance" of the two French nuns, Léonie Duquet and Alice Domon. Perseval, who lives today in Thailand, denied any links with the abduction, but did admit being a former OAS member who escaped to Argentina after the Evian agreements.un ancien agent français mis en cause'', Le Figaro, 6 February 2007 [http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-79898-2007-02-02.html Impartí órdenes que fueron cumplidas], Página/12, 2 February 2007 In popular culture The OAS featured prominently in the novel The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth, and its film adaptation. The story deals primarily with a fictional assassination plot against De Gaulle, where the organisation hires a British contract killer (the Jackal) to kill De Gaulle. Bastien-Thiry and the Petit-Clamart plot figure prominently in the early sections of the story. Forsyth also mentions the OAS in The Dogs of War, with several of its protagonists having joined the movement. The fictional Colonel Rodin from Jackal is also alluded to. The OAS also featured prominently in Jack Higgins' Wrath of the Lion, in which the organization fictionally manages to suborn the crew of a French Navy submarine and use it for missions of revenge. Alain Cavalier's 1964 film L'Insoumis stars Alain Delon as a deserter from the French Foreign Legion who joins the OAS on a kidnapping mission. The OAS is referenced in the Oliver Stone film JFK, as suspected conspirator Clay Shaw (played by Tommy Lee Jones) is alleged to have business connections with them. The plot to assassinate De Gaulle at the Paris suburb of Petit-Clamart"Objective: De Gaulle", TIME, 9 October 1973 is also mentioned several times in the film. The OAS is referred to in the 2008 film Mesrine: Public Enemy No.1 (L'Instinc de Mort), describing the life of French criminal Jacques Mesrine. The character of Guido (played by Gérard Depardieu) is a member of OAS. Guido mentions OAS multiple times and together with Mesrine he commits assassination of another OAS member,who in his last moments declares: "De Gaulle killed us". The OAS is referenced in Ian Fleming's On Her Majesty's Secret Service (novel). James Bond's future father-in-law Marc-Ange, the head of a Corsican crime faction known as Union Corse, refers to the OAS in chapter 24, due to the OAS' having a French military helicopter in their possession. Because of the OAS indebtedness to Marc-Ange and the Union Corse, the helicopter is loaned to the MI-6 - Marc-Ange/Union Corse coalition endeavoring to thwart Ernst Stavro Blofeld's plot to unleash biological warfare in the UK's agricultural industry. "OAS" graffiti appears outside a bakery approximately eight minutes into the 1963 film The Bakery Girl of Monceau. Two minutes later, following the second appearance of the exterior, similar graffiti appears to have been removed from the facade of the bakery. Organisation Chain of command The secret army was a three-part organisation, each segment having its own action commando squads.Au Nom De l'O.A.S., Gilles Buscia & Patrice Zehr (preface by Col. Argoud), Alain Lefeuvre Editions, 1980 French Algerian branch Oranie district *General Edmond Jouhaud :Commander Pierre Guillaume :aide *Charles Micheletti :civilian *Colonel Dufour :replacing Gen. Jouhaud *General Gardy :Capitaine Pierre Sergent :Revolutionary Directory member :Christian Léger :Revolutionary Directory member :Jean-Marie Curutchet :Revolutionary Directory member :Denis Baille :Revolutionary Directory member :Jean-René Souètre :Revolutionary Directory member Algérois district *Colonel Vaudrey *Pierre Delhomme :in charge of El-Biar, near Algiers Constantinois district *Colonel Pierre Château-Jobert *Robert Martel :aka the chouan de la Mitidja ("chouan of the Mitidja") Metropolitan French branch OAS-Métropole *Captain Pierre Sergent :Chief of Staff *Lieutenant Daniel Godot :ODM-Métropole Director *Jacques Chadeyron :APP-Métropole *Captain Jean-Marie Curutchet :ORO-Métropole France-Mission III #André Canal :aka the Monocle Spanish branch OAS-Madrid Short living dissident group claiming the organisation's direction. All members were arrested by the Guardia Civil military police. *Colonel Antoine Argoud *Colonel Charles Lacheroy *Commander Pierre Lagaillarde Commanding officers *General Raoul Salan :aka Soleil ("Sun" surname for Louis XIV of France) :Chief of Staff *General Paul Gardy :Chief of Staff *Colonel Yves Godard :Chief Aide *Doctor Jean-Claude Perez :ORO Director *Captain Jean-Marie Curutchet :ORO Director, replacing Dr. Perez on 1 January 1962 *Colonel Jean Gardes :ODM Director *Jean-Jacques Susini :APP Director See also *La Main Rouge, a similar organisation established earlier *Alfredo Astiz *Cité catholique, a Catholic fundamentalist group which included OAS members and had an important role in teaching counter-insurgency doctrines to the Argentine Armed Forces *Yves Guérin-Sérac, one of the founders of the OAS *Albert Spaggiari, who would later work with the Pinochet's DINA, was an OAS member. *Jean-Marie Le Pen, former head of the National Front (FN), was Tixier-Vignancour's campaign director in 1965 *Roger Holeindre, former OAS activist and current vice-president of the FN *Jacques Bompard, former OAS supporter, member of the FN since its 1972 creation, and member since December 2005 of Philippe de Villiers' Movement for France (MPF) *Enrico Mattei, head of the Italian Eni oil company and supporter of Algerian independence was threatened by the OAS. He died in an airplane accident in October 1962. *Jacques Mesrine *Jean-Pierre Maïone-Libaude, former member of the OAS Delta commando who allegedly assassinated Pierre Goldman in 1979 on behalf of the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL) and may also have killed Henri Curiel in 1978 (Curiel took part in the Jeanson network which supported the Front de libération nationale) *Jean-Pierre Cherid, OAS member who then took a central part in the organisation of the Spanish GAL *Front Algérie Française An earlier extremist group Notes Further reading *Aussaresses, General Paul. The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, 1955–1957. (New York: Enigma Books, 2010) ISBN 978-1-929631-30-8. * Harrison, Alexander. Challenging De Gaulle: The O.A.S and the Counter-Revolution in Algeria, 1954-1962. New York: Praeger, 1989 . * Henissart, Paul. Wolves in the City: The Death of French Algeria. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970. * Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace:Algeria 1954–1962, New York: New York Review Books, 1977 * Robin, Marie-Monique, Escadrons de la mort, l'école française, La Découverte (15 September 2004). Collection: Cahiers libres. (ISBN 2707141631) (transl. in Spanish)(Presentation) Category:Terrorism in France Category:Organisation de l'armée secrète Category:Rebel groups in Algeria Category:Far-right politics in France